TCTC seeks 2.4-mill, 10-year renewal levy
By Ed Runyan
CHAMPION
The Trumbull Career and Technical Center is asking voters to approve a 2.4-mill, 10-year renewal levy this November that provides 46 percent of the revenue used to operate the school.
Jason Gray, TCTC superintendent, says if the levy fails, the school would have to cut nearly half of its programs because of the loss of $6 million in annual revenue. The school serves about 1,000 students from 19 school districts and offers 32 career and technical programs. It also has adult-training programs.
Gray noted that Ohio Gov. John Kasich earlier this year called for students as young as middle school to be exposed to vocational- training so that they can begin to plan for blue-collar jobs that generally don’t require a college education. To that end, TCTC this summer offered week-long classes in 10 to 15 of its vocational programs.
“People thought manufacturing was gone,” Gray said. “It’s not gone. There are a lot of manufacturing jobs because of retirements. There is a need for skilled trades.”
Vocational programs in welding and health care, for example, are growing because of increased demand, Gray said. There is a waiting list to get into TCTC’s high-school welding program. The school is applying for grants to obtain the equipment needed to expand it.
But many people don’t realize that about 37 percent of TCTC students go on to college, Gray said.
The school received a grant recently to purchase physical therapy equipment so it can start a program this year in exercise science.
The levy is charged in all areas of the county that send students to TCTC. The one school district that currently does not send its students to TCTC is Howland, which uses the Ashtabula County Technical & Career Campus in Jefferson.
But it’s possible Howland will start sending its students to TCTC in the future, which would add tax-levy money to TCTC from Howland residents, but Gray said TCTC’s costs would also rise, offsetting the additional revenue.